Crate flooring

[DeLaRocha]

Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone had come up with a creative solution to this:

We have a just over one-year-old lhasa/poodle mix. She is crate trained and indoor pee-pad trained and does very well overall. I typically let her out to pee before we go to bed at 10-11 at night and again in the morning between 8 and 9am. However, at night she typically pees in her crate at least once (I'm guessing). Which in the morning leaves a cleanup of the crate as well as a soaked dog.

So, to avoid a cleanup every morning we've tried putting a pee pad in the crate. Any time we do this she shreds the pee pad into a thousand pieces even though toys and bones are also in the crate with her. I've even tried the pee pads with sticky glue on the back to keep them stuck down and she manages to shred those as well.

My next attempt was to put an old towel in the crate and replace it every few days. This seemed to work great as far as mess was concerned (just throw the towels in the wash!) and I assumed that she was just chewing on the towels. Well the other day she threw up a 6 inch log of what must have been digested towel so obviously she is eating the towel as well. I think we were very lucky and agreed that we'd rather have a dirty dog than a dead dog. So now we're just back to an empty crate again.

So is the problem that we're not letting her out at night? I really don't want to have to wake up during the middle of the night to let her out. However, the same problem would occur if we need to be gone for hours during the day (say on the weekend). Has anyone come up with a good solution for keeping the crate clean that also won't kill my dog?

Thanks to everyone for any advice you can give.

 

[Buddy'sParents]

To be honest, I think the first mistake was to train her to use the pads. And then to put them in the crate.

In an appropriately sized crate, dogs will not pee. It is their den. How big is her crate?

Could you hold your pee for 10-11 hours? Probably, but it certainly would not be healthy.

I think that you need to be a little more open with the idea of giving more frequent potty breaks. Am I reading it correctly, or just assuming, that she is not let out during the day?

 

[DeLaRocha]

Sorry if I wasn't clear on that. I work from home and the only room she has access to in the house is also the room where I work (and also where her crate is). So, she is out of the crate but confined to this room for the majority of the day. She is crated in the evening (probably after 7pm) and then let out to pee as I said around 10 or 11 and then in the crate overnight. We haven't had pee pads in the crate for over 6 months, we gave up on it pretty quickly.

I believe she is close to full grown and the crate is probably 2'x1.5'x1.5'. It is fully large enough for her to stand and sit in without hitting the ceiling but she cannot jump up. She is also able to lay stretched out the long way without difficulty. I use Simple Green (non-toxic) to clean the cage but I'm not sure how that handles the odors. I read in another post that you really need to eliminate the urine smell and I'm not sure this is doing that.

Do people really let their dogs out in the middle of the night? What do people who crate their dogs do when they need to be gone for a majority of the day (say on a weekend) and can't be home to let the dog out every few hours?

 

[Taylor&Me]

I don't like the idea of pee pads. I think it tells the dog it is okay to pee in the house. Could you get rid of pads and try retraining her to go outside? You would have to start all over again, but I think it can be done. My dog is almost 8 months and can hold in his crate while I'm at work and can hold it throughout the night. But there has been nights when he has to go out. And, as a responsible owner, I take him out... even though the weather's been getting real cold! And, on the weekends, I have to work around his schedule or have someone take him out for a break.

And, with Taylor, he was more prone to make mistakes in his crate when there was a towel in there. It absorbs all liquid, so he was okay with it. Try removing beddings for a while. Taylor's at a point where he can now have his bedding in there with him. Also, to eliminate order, use Nature's Miracle. It can be found at PetCo or PetSmart. I think it's the best one.

 

[Buddy'sParents]

My husband works from home and the dogs get let out as needed. As they've gotten older, they've not needed to be let out as much. At night, they let us know when they need to go out and if they do, then we let them out.

We've taught each dog the command "piddles" and "poopers" and when we give this, they know that they'd better go. However, that doesn't negate the occasional middle of the night "I need to pee" or "I'm going to explode".

Can you put in a doggy door? If your dog is house trained, I'm not sure why she is confined to only one room or her crate at night?

 

[girlbuffalo1]

I would think the crate needs to be smaller perhaps like divided off--we have both a 16 lb and a 6lb dog and both can hold it pretty darn long.

I would let them out the very latest right before you go to bed and out right when you get up (you sleep from 10pm-9am??--that's like 11 hours)--our dogs are fine with going out at 11pm and then back out at 6:30 when I wake up--so maybe 11 hrs is just a bit too long??

When we first got Honey she had problems peeing in the crate so we made it so very small with no bedding no nothing in it--just enough room to lay down and barely turn around---(this for just at night) it was probably like 8inches by 1 foot--this worked out quite well...